In the story Eleven written by Sandra Cisneros, a girl experiences the experience of growing up. The story is set in a small moment in which the author uses to prove her point. The girl, Rachel, thinks of growing up as layers, like trees. You develop different and newer layers, but you don’t shed the older ones. When you’re eleven, part of your three year old self is still inside of you. When Mrs. Price, the teacher, forces Rachel to put on a sweater that isn’t hers, Rachel becomes her three year old self and cries, instead of speaking up like an eleven year old should. Rachel recounts her horrible experience of being forced to do something, and wishes that she were 102 that day, and flying away like a tiny balloon in the sky. Throughout the story, Rachel experiences different emotions, learns to grow up, and how to not judge someone by the surface, or take people’s words for granted. Sandra Cisneros really tells a tale of growing up and becoming eleven.
Don’t take people’s words for granted. Not everything is always the way it seems. For example, your dad might put in front of you a cake white on the outside, but you bite into it, and it’s actually a brown chocolate cake on the inside. Never judge someone or something until you know all the facts. When Sylvia Saldivar says that the old and ugly red sweater might be Rachel’s, Mrs. Price takes her words for granted and just throws the sweater to Rachel, and when Rachel tries to distance herself from it, she forces her to put it on. Rachel does not speak up, and Mrs. Price acts like nothing has happened. Finally, when Phyllis Lopez claims the sweater, Mrs. Price still does not apologize for her actions and just acts like everything is okay. Making an assumption is bad enough. But it’s even worse when the assumption turns out to be wrong, affects someone, and you don’t apologize after it. Words can be deceitful. Not everything is right on the surface. Dig deeper.
Emotions are like captured horses. Always straining to be loose. Emotions happened to everybody. It’s natural. But you need to learn to control it, and make strong ones come at the correct time. In the story, after Pachel gets the red sweater from Mrs. Price, she does not keep her emotions in control, and she starts to cry when Mrs. Price forces her to put it on. Instead of staying calm and reasoning, she just lets it out full on, and only manages to provoke Mrs. Price. She also feels confusion because she doesn’t know about why Mrs. Price and SYlivia are forcing the sweater on her, and she feels embarrassed and probably humiliated because she was forced to put on the sweater that no one had touched for a month or so. Rachel feels a lot of emotions throughout the story, and learns to control them. Emotions always have a second layer, hidden beneath the top. Controlling emotions is a valuable skill that improves the inside and the outside.
Maturity is inevitable physically, but it’s up to you mentally. You will always mature physically, as it is just part of your body, but you choose to mature mentally. Rachel is maturing throughout the story. The story takes place during her birthday, and she is turning eleven. Rachel describes maturing like layers, hidden beneath one another as new ones develop. You are deemed eleven, but you are still ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero. You can never shed your old layers, and they become a part of you permanently, like the rings that grow in a tree as it grows. Rachel observes that sometimes, people act older or younger than they actually are, and she uses her experience as an example. When she cried, she was her three year old self. When she is leading something, though, she might be her eleven year old self. A tree can’t shed its rings, and a person can’t shed their ages. Growing up is part of life, so you might as well make the best of it and not complain, but adapt to it.
In the story Eleven, the main character, Rachel, learns many things. Words can be a powerful tool for good or for evil, and emotions should always be controlled. Maturity can not b be avoided, so one should probably make the best of it. Rachel learns to speak up in time of need, and also to keep emotions in control. Sandra Cisneros really tells a story about a girl who needed to find her own voice to stand up to injustice, even small injustices, and mature mentally as well as physically. Maturity, emotions, and words are all great themes shared in this short story. Rachel discovers how to truly turn eleven, not ten or nine. Rachel really learns important life lessons, and even though she wants to be 102, she knows that she can only stay eleven and below for now. Aging up is not a choice. It’s a necessity of life.
Comments